Daredevils Take on Mumbai Indians

New Delhi: On a roll after notching up two victories in a row, a confident Delhi Daredevils would aim a hat-trick of wins when they clash with Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

The Delhi batsmen would look to exploit the bowling chinks of their rivals, who looked helpless against the Yusuf Pathan onslaught in their first match against Rajasthan.

Mumbai Indians just about managed to survive Pathan storm as except for pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga, the other bowlers looked not more than ordinary.

Bowling would be the area Mumbai need to look into as they prepare to take on batting might of Delhi.

For the hosts, either of the two openers - captain Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag -- has spent a good amount of time at the crease to help chase the targets and the middle has also responded well so far.

And the way Sehwag massacred the Rajasthan bowlers with his 34-ball 75 in yesterday's clash, Mumbai need its bowlers to do some extraordinary to stop the Nazafgarh marauder.

But the best option for them would be to put up a big total on the board since any score less than 200 would not be a problem for Delhi to chase, if Sehwag has his way.

Mumbai too have solid openers in Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya but it was young blood that came to their rescue in the match against Rajasthan Royal.

Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu clicked at the right time to take the team total beyond the 200-run mark and all of them need to fire again tomorrow.

But scoring runs would not be easy for Mumbai as Delhi's bowling unit is in good touch.

In the two matches so far, they have been successful in restricting both the opponents - Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals - inside the 150-mark.

Left-arm pacer Dirk Nannes and Farvez Maharoof have done a brilliant job with the new ball while spinner Amit Mishra and Pradeep Sangwan have also contributed nicely.

So, Mumbai are in for a good test tomorrow at Ferozshah Kotla ground.

The only worry for Delhi would be the form of Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan, who surprisingly has not even opened his account in the two matches.

The explosive and the most sought after batsman these days, Dilshan would be keen to shrug of an indifferent start to the tournament.

Skipper Gambir would also want South African AB de Villiers to find his touch and be among runs to boost the batting order further.

Mumbai need Sanath Jayasuriya and Tendulkar to give them a good start and have to ensure that Ryan McLaren, Rajagopal Sathish and Ali Murtaza shares the burden with Zaheer and Malinga.

Both the skippers would not mind losing toss since how the re-prepared pitch would behave at the Ferozshah Kotla nobody knows.

The December pitch fiasco when India-Sri Lanka ODI was abandoned due to unfit strip is still fresh in the minds of the fans, particularly Delhiites, and a good game of cricket is imperative to redeem the image of the venue.

Teams (from)

Delhi Daredevils: Gautam Gambhir (C), Virender Sehwag, Sarabjit Ladda, Joginder Singh, Rajat Bhatia, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Moises Henriques, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Andrew McDonald, Farveez Maharoof, Yo Mahesh, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra, Wayne Parnell, Shashi Ranjan, Aavishkar Salvi, Pradeep Sangwan, Sarandeep Singh, David Warner, Umesh Yadav.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (capt.), Murtaza Ali, Dwayne Bravo, Shikhar Dhawan, Jean-Paul Duminy, Dilhara Fernando, Harbhajan Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya, Zaheer Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ryan McLaren, Chandan Madan, Ishan Malhotra, Lasith Malinga, Graham Napier, Abhishek Nayar, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Rajagopal Sathish, Syed Shahabuddin, Rahul Shukla, Aditya Tare, Saurabh Tiwary.

Pitch and conditions
The Feroz Shah Kotla is currently serving a 12-month ban from international cricket after the farce played out here last December, when an ODI between India and Sri Lanka was called off. The ban does not apply to domestic events and the IPL, but it is believed this game will not be played on the same strip that caused problems for the batsmen in December.

Stats and trivia

• Virender Sehwag has the third-highest strike-rate of the season so far, having scored his runs at 207.50.
• Nannes has been quite a handful against the left-handers, and his natural angle, into the left-handers, will give Jayasuriya no room to free his arms.
• Dirk Nannes has the best economy rate in an innings in this edition - his four overs against Kings XI Punjab went for just 12 runs, and he picked up two wickets.

Match facts
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)